通译文库

(1). WASHINGTON-Several Supreme Court justices suggested Wednesday that Congress acted outside the public interest when it passed a 1998 copyright law.

星期三，美国联邦最高法院几名法院暗示，国会于1998年通过的著作权法案有违公共利益。

(2). At the behest of Disney Co. and other large media firms, that gave authors and inventors another 20 years to dictate the sale and use of their words, images and music.

这部法案是应迪斯尼公司和其他几家大的传媒公司作出的，其中赋予作者和发明者另外20年的保护期以便销售和使用他们的文字、图像和音乐。

(3). Several of the justices thought it took up a major challenge to federal copyright law.

几名法官认为这是对联邦著作权法的一次重要挑战。

(4). Congress went too far when it extended copyright terms for the 11th time in 40 years.

当国会在40年内11次延长著作权保护期时，国会的行为走的有些远了。

(5). Several of the justices appeared sympathetic to claims.

对于这个主张，法官们表示赞同。

(6). The law will keep some 425,000 works, including early images of Mickey Mouse and songs by George Gershwin, from becoming more freely available to the public for two more decades.

这部法案将会使425,000部作品的保护期又延长了20年，包括早期的迪斯尼的米老鼠和乔治格什温创作的歌曲，本来这些作品都应该进入公有领域了。

(7). But even those justices who took issue with Congress for passing the law questioned whether there were sufficient legal reasons to strike it down.

但是即便那些反对国会通过这项法案的法官也怀疑是否有足够的法律理由推翻这项法案。

(8). Justice Sandra Day O’Connor told the attorney arguing against the law.

Sandra Day O’Connor法官对反对这项法案的律师说

(9). I can agree with you in terms of policy that this flies directly in the face of what the framers of the Constitution had in mind, absolutely.

“这种想法只是直接在宪法的制订者心中闪了一下，对此我完全同意你。”

(10). But does it violate the Constitution?

但是这能构成违宪吗

(11). Hundreds of groups and artists have weighed in on the case, one of the most closely watched of the court’s term.

许许多多的团体和艺术家都参与到这个案件中，这是最高法院最受密切关注的案件之一。

(12). The stakes are high, with major organizations and prominent artists fighting to keep their movies, books and characters out of the public domain for as long as possible.

赌注也非常高，主要机构和知名艺术家都在争取使他们的电影、书籍和人物尽可能长久的受著作权保护。

(13). So they can collect lucrative licensing fees.

这样他们才能收到可观的许可使用费。

(14). On the other side of the dispute are Internet-based publishers, small publishing companies and individuals who lead local choirs and drama departments.

争议的另一方是以互联网为基础的网络出版商、小的出版公司和领导小的唱诗班和戏剧团的个人。

(15). They argue that the law will dramatically increase costs to the public without providing public benefits

他们认为这部法案并未提供给公众任何益处，而是戏剧性的增加公众的成本。

(16). It is a contention backed in court papers by many of the nation’s leading economists, including five Nobel Prize winners.

这一论点受到国家许多第一流的经济学家的支持，包括5个诺贝尔奖获得者。

(17). At issue is whether Congress exceeded its authority under the Constitution when it passed the 1998 Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, and whether that law violates the First Amendment.

争议的问题是，国会通过1998年《松尼波诺著作权期延长法案》是否超越宪法规定的权限，以及这部法案是否违背了第一修正案。

(18). In passing the law, Congress extended the term for existing and future copyrights held by individuals from 50 to 70 years after the creator’s death.

在通过这部法案时，国会将现有的和将来的个人著作权保护期从作者死后50年延长至70年。

(19). After his or her death, the copyright is taken over by the artist’s heirs.

在作者死后，著作权由作者的继承人行使。

(20). For corporations holding copyrights, it extended the term from 75 to 95 years.

对于持有版权的公司来说，版权保护期从75年延长至95年。

(21). Defenders of the law say the extension was necessary to make the copyright system conform with laws in other countries.

该法案的拥护者主张，为了使美国著作权体系与其他国家的体系相协调，延长著作权保护期是必要的。

(22). But opponents say Congress merely was bowing to pressure from powerful media groups like Disney.

但是反对者主张，国会仅仅是屈服于强大的传媒公司的压力，如迪斯尼。

(23). It was fighting to keep early versions of its Mickey Mouse character from entering the public domain in 1998, when its existing copyright was scheduled to expire.

该公司设计的早期米老鼠的形象的著作权本该在1998年到期并进入公有领域。

(24). Lawrence Lessig, the Stanford Law School professor leading the challenge to the law.

斯坦福大学法学院教授Lawrence Lessig负责领导这次对宪法的挑战。

(25). He urged the justices Wednesday to reverse a District of Columbia-based federal appeals court decision upholding the law.

他催促最高法院法官推翻哥伦比亚特区的联邦上诉法院通过的支持该法案的判决。

(26). Lessig maintained that Congress violated the Constitution’s Copyright Clause and the First Amendment when it passed the extension.

Lessig坚持说国会在通过该法案时，违反了宪法的著作权条款和第一修正案。

(27). The Copyright Clause gives Congress the right to grant to authors and inventors exclusive use of their works "for limited times" in order to "promote the progress of science and useful arts."

根据宪法中的著作权条款，为了“推动科学和进步文化的发展”，国会有权在限制时间内赋予作者和发明者对其作品所享有的著作权和专营权。

(28). As the court has said in previous cases, copyright protection was designed to entice people to create original works by giving them a limited period to reap all of the benefits.

正如法官在先前案例中所说的，著作权保护是通过给予人们一段有限的时间获取相关的利益，以鼓励人们创作出更加有用的作品。

(29). And it will dictate people how their creations are used.

并引导人们如何使用他们的作品。

(30). In his argument, Lessig said Congress had ignored the point of copyright law.

在辩论中，Lessig说，国会忽略了著作权法的要点。

(31). Extending the copyright term for works that already had been created, he argued, would do nothing to spur creativity.

他提到，延长现有作品的著作权保护期对激发人们的创作力没有任何作用。

(32). What’s more, he said, if the court allowed the law to stand, "then there is no limit to the ability of Congress to extend existing terms."

而且，如果法院允许该法案继续存在，“那国会就可以不受任何限制的延长现存的期限了。”

(33). In passing the law, Congress had chosen "between the author and the public at large," he said.

他说，在通过该法案时，国会已经在“作者和普通大众之间”作出选择了。

(34). Congress sided with the author-and the corporation-at great cost to the public, he argued.

国会站在了作者一边，也即公司一边，这对公众来说将会负担更多的成本。

(35). Because the law keeps the public from using works that would otherwise have been more freely available.

因为该法案阻止公众使用本该可以更加自由利用的作品。

(36). Implicit in their questions was concern that Congress ignored the point of the Copyright Clause and instead acted to protect the interest of a few powerful groups.

他们的疑问中暗示的事实是国会忽略了著作权条款中的要点，转而保护少数强大的团体的利益。

(37). As Justice Anthony Kennedy put it, "What’s the most plausible explanation for this-to reward existing vested interests or stimulate new works? "

正如法官Anthony Kennedy写道的，“对此，什么是最似乎真实的解释-回报现存的既得利益，还是鼓励新的创作?”

(38). But Solicitor General Theodore Olson, arguing in favor of the law, argued that the Constitution gives Congress a "very, very broad grant" of power to regulate copyrights.

但是副司法部长Theodore Olson则支持该法案，他还声称，宪法赋予国会“非常，非常广泛的权利”调控著作权。

(39). He noted that Congress had repeatedly extended copyright terms, without challenge, for more than a century.

他还提到，一个多世纪以来，国会一再延长著作权保护期并没有受到挑战。

(40). "What the statute does is favor the creator, as opposed to the person who wants to copy the creator, and that’s entirely an appropriate determination for Congress to make," Olson argued.

Olson说道，“该法案实际上是有利于作者的，同时不利于那些侵犯作者著作权的人,这完全是国会所作的一个明智的决定。”....(please sign in for more)

(41). At the end of the argument, even those sympathetic to Lessig seemed reluctant to take the next step.

在争论结束时，甚至那些赞成Lessig的人也似乎对采取下一步措施表现的很为难。....(please sign in for more)

(42). Kennedy, for example, worried that striking down the 1998 law would also call into question a 1976 law that extended copyright by 19 years.

举例来说，Kennedy就担心，如果推翻1998年法案，那么延长了19年保护期的1976年法案也会受到挑战。....(please sign in for more)

(43). "I can find a lot of fault with what Congress did here, because it takes a lot of things out of the public domain," O’Connor said.

O’Connor说道，“我能够发现国会这次行为的许多缺点，因为它将许多作品排除在公有领域之外。”....(please sign in for more)

(44). But having done that, it’s hard to find in the Constitution they may not extend the terms.

但是我们还是很难在宪法中找到他们不能延长著作权保护期的理由。....(please sign in for more)

(45). Recently, the Supreme Court decided in Eldred v. Ashcroft that a copyright term of life plus 70 years is "limited" as the Constitution’s Copyright Clause requires.

最近，最高法院在Eldred v.Ashcroft一案中判决道，著作权的保护期只包括作者终生及其死亡后70年是对宪法中著作权条款的限制。....(please sign in for more)

(46). As a result, the Court declined to strike down the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act.

由此，最高法院拒绝废除《松尼波诺著作权期延长法案》。....(please sign in for more)

(47). Once the Court found that Congress had not violated the Copyright Clause, it was left with no other way to rein in Congress’s excesses in this area.

一旦最高法院认定国会并没有违反著作权条款，国会在这一领域的超限工作就没有办法控制了。....(please sign in for more)

(48). Longstanding precedent counseled that the Court ought to defer to Congress on the policy aspects of copyright law.

长期以来，判决先例表明在著作权方面的政策上，法院应当尊重国会的工作。....(please sign in for more)

(49). And, as I noted in an earlier column, Congress had at least one good reason to enact the current copyright term.

同时，国会至少还有一个说的通的理由去颁布这样的法案。....(please sign in for more)

(50). It harmonizes United States law with that of the European Union.

那就是，使美国法和欧盟的法律相协调。....(please sign in for more)

(51). Yet there have been many such Congressional excesses in this arena.

国会在这一领域曾经作出过许多这样超限的行为。....(please sign in for more)

(52). In the form of repeated extension of the copyright term at the behest of corporations who hold copyrights, and to the detriment of the public domain.

以多次延长著作权保护期的方式维护拥有版权的公司的利益，侵害公众的利益。....(please sign in for more)

(53). Is there anything that can be done about them?

对此，有什么办法呢....(please sign in for more)

(54). Absolutely. It’s time to take the issue back to Congress, and fight for a rollback of the duration of the copyright term.

现在可以肯定的是，我们应当将这一问题重新提交国会，为著作权保护期的回缩进行斗争。....(please sign in for more)

(55). Abolishing Copyright Altogether Would Be Sheer Folly.

取消著作权是绝对不可能的....(please sign in for more)

(56). A now entrenched movement in the Internet world favors eliminating copyright altogether.

互联网出版商特别希望能够完全取消版权。....(please sign in for more)

(57). And granted, young artists and performers rarely are initially eager to enforce their copyright, because they are first concerned with building an audience.

年轻的艺术家和表演者最初很少行使他们的著作权，因为他们起初更希望建立他们的观众群。....(please sign in for more)

(58). But if they want, they can waive copyright protection as many have done by offering free downloads of music.

但是如果他们愿意，他们也可以放弃著作权保护,正如许多人提供免费音乐下载一样。....(please sign in for more)

(59). Copyright is an option, not a requirement, for the creator.

著作权对于作者来说只是一个选择权，而非必需。....(please sign in for more)

(60). Moreover, the successful young artists will change their mind when they seek to be musicians full-time, meaning they must live off the revenue from their music.

此外，当年轻的艺术家设法成为专职的音乐家时，这意味着他们必须依靠他们创作的音乐生活，他们也会转变观念。....(please sign in for more)

(61). Copyright gives them that option, too-the option to change their mind, and decide, work by work, whether to sell or give away their music.

著作权也给予他们以选择权，即转变观念、个别决定是否销售或放弃他们音乐的权利。....(please sign in for more)

(62). In the end, copyright protection is sorely needed if creators are ever to capitalize on their work.

最终，当创作者想不断利用他们的作品时，著作权保护就变得非常重要。....(please sign in for more)

(63). Without copyright, whenever a creative work, such as a song, poem, or movie, entered the market, the artist would get little more than the initial payment for the initial use.

如果没有著作权的话，当一部作品进入市场的时候，如歌曲、诗歌或电影，创作者一般只能获得最初使用的最初付费。....(please sign in for more)

(64). Once the work was out there, it could be copied with impunity-with no payment to the author for subsequent users’ drawing on, or simply enjoying, his or her creativity.

一旦作品被投向市场，公众就可以免费使用该作品、享受作者的创造力，而不需要向作者支付费用。....(please sign in for more)

(65). So the question is not whether we should have copyright.

因此问题不是是否我们应该拥有著作权。....(please sign in for more)

(66). The question is how to balance two competing goals.

问题是如何平衡两个相互竞争的目标.....(please sign in for more)

(67). On the one hand, we as a society want to give just the right amount of copyright protection to make it possible for creative individuals to be rewarded for their contributions.

一方面，作为一个社会，我们希望给予著作权人以适当的保护，以便能够鼓励有创造力的个体进行创作。....(please sign in for more)

(68). On the other hand, we also want to avoid placing too heavy a burden on later users of the copyrighted work.

另一方面，我们还希望不给受著作权保护的作品的后来使用者带来太重的负担。....(please sign in for more)

(69). Those authors can turn the work into something new, and thus also benefit the culture.

那些创作者可以在原有作品的基础上继续改进，创造出新的作品，还可以促进文化的发展。....(please sign in for more)

(70). Reversing The Trend of Lengthening Copyright Duration

扭转延长著作权期的趋势....(please sign in for more)

(71). Currently, no such balance is being struck.

目前，上述两个目标并没有达到平衡。....(please sign in for more)

(72). Instead, only one side of the balance-the need to protect creative works (or more accurately, in the modern world, the corporations that own many of them)is receiving attention.

相反，只有一个目标，即保护创造性的作品(或者更准确的说，在现代社会中，拥有很多版权的公司)，受到重视。....(please sign in for more)

(73). Congress has always increased, and never decreased, the duration of copyright term.

国会一直在延长，从来没有缩短过著作权保护期。....(please sign in for more)

(74). It began as a maximum of 28 years, changed to a maximum of 56, then changed again, to life-of-the-author plus 50 years.

最初，著作权保护期最长是28年，延长至56年，又延长至作者终身再加上死后50年。....(please sign in for more)

(75). The Sonny Bono Act, as noted above, brought the term to life-of-the-author plus 70.

前面提到的《松尼波诺法案》又将期限延长至作者终身及其死后70年。....(please sign in for more)

(76). All these extensions have occurred at the behest of copyright owners and the industries that thrive on copyright ownership.

所有这些著作权保护期的延长都是应著作权人以及因拥有版权而繁荣发展的产业的要求作出的。....(please sign in for more)

(77). With little, if any, opposition and a Congress that treats copyright regulation as a species of trade regulation, they have written their own ticket for duration from the beginning.

在几乎没有人反对的情况下，将著作权法规视为一系列贸易法规的国会作出了上述延长著作权保护期的决定，这是那些著作权人以及产业商最初就设想到的。....(please sign in for more)

(78). Once, the copyright term spanned a single generation.

以前，著作权保护期只跨越一代。....(please sign in for more)

(79). Now, it spans three. From any objective perspective, it is simply too long.

现在，它跨越三代。从客观的角度来讲，这个保护期实在是太长了。....(please sign in for more)

(80). Three Options For Those Who Want to Freeze or Roll Back Copyright Duration

回复原著作权保护期的三种可能方法....(please sign in for more)

(81). There are three ways out of the constant increase in duration.

有三种方法可以使著作权保护期脱离现在的延长趋势。....(please sign in for more)

(82). Unfortunately, they are all uphill battles.

遗憾的是，它们都需要艰苦的斗争。....(please sign in for more)

(83). First, those who want to decrease duration could persuade Congress to take responsibility for copyright law.

首先，那些希望缩短著作权保护期的人们可以说服国会对维护著作权法负责。....(please sign in for more)

(84). They might ask it, for instance, to hold hearings to debate the very question of what is the correct copyright term for maximizing the public good.

举例来说，人们可以要求国会就争议问题召开听证会，如多长的著作权保护期才是最有利于公共利益的。....(please sign in for more)

(85). Second, opponents of lengthy copyrights could go straight to the copyright industries with their arguments.

其次，人们还可以直接和版权行业展开讨论。....(please sign in for more)

(86). To counter the "harmonization" argument, they would have to lobby both U.S. and EU industries.

为了反驳“协调论”，他们还必须游说美国和欧盟的相关行业。....(please sign in for more)

(87). It is hardly a meaningful hurdle given that most of these industries have consolidated into multi-national corporations.

考虑到大多数这样的行业都是跨国公司，这还不是特别困难。....(please sign in for more)

(88). After all, many of the opponents of the lengthy term are also consumers of the music, movies, and books that the industries sell.

毕竟，许多延长保护期的反对者也是这些行业销售的音乐、电影和书籍的消费者。....(please sign in for more)

(89). A boycott of companies that do not sign on to a pledge to endorse a shorter term could work.

公司间的联合抵制可能会有一定作用，为了要求更短的保护期限，也许并不需要签订协议。....(please sign in for more)

(90). Other tactics might work too-such as demonstrations, well-crafted public relations, staged public debates, and drafting leading creative stars.

其他策略也可能奏效，如示威游行，精心设计的公共关系，举行公众辩论以及选拔有领导力的创造明星等。....(please sign in for more)

(91). Unfortunately, it will take nothing short of a social movement to stop further increases.

遗憾的是，这些完全是为了阻止保护期的继续增长而进行的群众运动。....(please sign in for more)

(92). Pressure on corporations does work sometimes.

对公司施加压力有时也会起作用.....(please sign in for more)

(93). Consider how Adobe changed its mind about its support for the prosecution of Dmitri Skylyarov and the Russian corporation Elcomsoft.

考虑一下Adobe公司在起诉Dmitri Skylyarov和俄国公司Elcomsoft上是如何转变观念的.....(please sign in for more)

(94). Because Elcomsoft sell software that cracked the protections on Adobe’s ebook reader.

因为Elcomsoft销售的软件侵犯了Adobe电子图书的版权。....(please sign in for more)

(95). Initially, Adobe supported the prosecution, but public outcry from the same young people who belong to the "open source software" movements changed its mind.

最初，Adobe支持起诉，但是由年轻人发动的一场“开放软件”公众运动改变了Adobe公司的做法。....(please sign in for more)

(96). The reality is that those who want copyright term increases halted cannot simply spout anti-copyright rant and expect things to change.

现实就是那些希望著作权保护期不再延长的人们不能仅仅进行反著作权的演说，并期望事情有所转机。....(please sign in for more)

(97). They have to come up with reasonable and defensible public policies that can be explained in terms of the public interest.

他们还必须提出合理的、正当的公共政策，这些政策将会按照公共利益进行解释。....(please sign in for more)

(98). Two separate forces need to converge and carry the message.

有两种力量需要集中以完成这项任务。....(please sign in for more)

(99). First, there are the consumers-those who are frustrated at paying so much, for so long. Every former Napster user likely falls into this category-and that’s millions of people.

首先，有众多的消费者，他们对于长期支付如此高昂的费用表示反感，从前Napster的用户都属于这一类，这就包含了上百万的人们。....(please sign in for more)

(100). Second, there are the "open sourcers"-those who feel, as a matter of principle, that there should be no (or a very short)copyright term.

第二，有许多的开放资源者，作为一个原则性问题，他们主张应该没有(或者非常短的)著作权保护期。....(please sign in for more)